Arch support



March 8, 1949. Q CARSON 2,464,023

ARCH SUPPORT Filed Sept. 24, 1946 IN VEN TOR.

Patented Mar. 8, 1949 UNITED STATES FATE? ARCH SUPPORT ApplicationSeptember 24, 1946, Serial No. 698,990

(Cl. 36-"l1) 1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to improvements in shoes and to improvements inthe construction of inner or shank portion of insole wh'ch eflectivelysupports the inner side of the a of t foot in shoes of the orthopedic orcorrective type. More particularly, this invention relates to fin--provements in an arch support oi the type closed generally in U. S.Patent No. 2,13%? I; William D. Moore, granted February 21, 1:: Fl.

It has been conventional in the past to provide the shank portion of aninsole with an integral wing extension which curves upwardly to overlapthe inner side of the arch of the foot and give support thereto.Moreover it has been a al to form the insole from pliable or this.material such as is obtained by splitting a piece of stock. The reasonfor this is to provide an insole is not rigid enough to tend to stiffenand lellflc'l' inflexible the forepart of the shoe.

In this class of insole the wing extension oi necessity is comparativelylimp and 1'eq1....res some form of reinforcement to give it sufficientri. .v to enable it to act as an arch support. Unl re inforced the Wingserves only as a wedge like filler or pad.

Moore provided this reinforcement by means of a steel plate underlyingand supporting the wing. The Moore arch support was pr vided with pairof attaching prongs extending from either of the plate through. bothsides of an inseam lip. It has been found that the Moore arch supportadds too much weight to a shoe and in addition is bulky and causes aridge in the completed. shoe. In addition, the steel used in forming theMoore support has so high a modulus of elasticity that too muchspringing action against the wearers foot is produced.

Briefly, it has been the objective of this inventor to provide a metalplate for underlying and supporting the wing which plate has a coined ordie-formed edge of tapering cross-section to eliminate any appearancesof a line in the finished shoe along the outer edge of the plate.

A further object has been the provision of plate which is provided withattaching prongs, one of which extends from the forward corner of theplate across the insole while the other extends from a point spacedbetween the front and back ends of the plate, thus leaving the heelsection of the shoe free from transverse prongs open for assembly of thevarious parts of the completed heel portion of the shoe.

A still further object has been the provision of a metal platemanufactured from a light metal aircraft alloy of aluminum or magnesiumbase to provide a light weight plate having a modulus of elasticityapproximately one-third hat of steel so that the plate will tend toyield to moving along the foot as a wearer of walks, but will springback immediately against the foot as soon as pressure is relieved, thusto (i mg to assist and support the loot structure out causing callousesor soreness due to exteme rigidity.

Other objects and further advantages of the invention will be more fullyapparent from description of the accompanying drawings in Figure 1 is aplan view of the o r or bottom side of an insole embodying the improvemeFigure 2 is a plan view similar to Figure 1 but With a shank stifieneincluded.

Figure 3 is a side view of the insole illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a perspective view show. thearch supporting plate beforeattachment to a shoe.

Figure 5 shows schematically the used in forming and coining the plateand plate is formed.

Figure 6 is a sectional view taken along 6--6, Figur 3 including insection a portion of an upper for a welt shoe and an outer sole stitchedtogether and to the insole.

Referring to the drawing in an inso e of conventional construction andpattern embodying a wing or lateral extension 2 projccting from theinner side of th s it. or e diate portion 3 thereof. T1115 winggenerally designated by the trade as a cookie and is add d to the insoleto form a support for the portion of the arch of the foot which it underas shoe. It usually is of a length substantially equal to that of theshank portion of the insole and has a curved outer edge.

In the finished shoe wi g bends upwardly in a curve to overlap theinside or the upper 3 and embrace a determined area of the inner of thefoot. It is usually tapered by skiving its under side from a base linein radiating direc tions in order to provide a feathered outer edgewhich prevents uneven surfaces which might cause discomfort or eveninjury to t e foot.

The insole is of conventional type of structure now employed in shoes inwhich the up er, or upper and welt, are secured together by .tching to acontinuous marginal lip 52. The surface of the insole encompassed by thelip, is usually reinforced or covered with a duck or fabric layer 6,secured to the undersurface or the insole to provide a laminated ormultiple ply structure. Since it is considered desirable to make theforepart of the shoe as flexible as possible, particularly in womensshoes, there has been a tendency to skeletonize the forepart of theinsole so that heavy grades of material can be employed for increasingthe rigidity of the shank of the shoe. These heavy grades, however,cause complications in the manufacture of the shoe and ge; erally havebeen found impractical. For this reason it is considered preferable touse for the insole a thin stock having sulficient body to permitmarginal channeling and provide a solid but pliable forepart. Use ofsuch thin stock however produces a relatively limp insole which must bereinforced at the shank by a metal stiffener l.

The use of a shank stiffener is a common practice in the manufacture ofshoes and shank stiffeners having wing extensions or projections forunderlying and supporting the wing of the insole have been employed, butrequire material modification of the conventional insole structure.Reinforcement for th wing is provided by means of a plate 8, which plateis separate from the shank stiffener 1.

Details of the construction of the plate 8 are shown in Figure 4. Theplate 8 consists of a rounded body portion 9 and two prongs a frontprong l and a rearward prong l 1 extended from a point between the endsof the plate. These prongs l0 and I! are used to attach the plate to theinsole. The body portion of the plate 8 has a rounded peripherical edge[2 having the same general configuration as the wing 2. The edge I2 istapered a sufficient amount to destroy all tendency of the plate to lookbulky when installed in the shoe. In addition, as shown in Figures 3 and6 the plate is provided with a curving crosssection to conform to andsupport the arch of a foot.

The forming and tapering is accomplished in apparatus of the type shownin Figure 5. A metal plate of approximate shape is cut from a sheet ofpre-heat treated aluminum base or magnesium base aircraft-type alloy.The plate is heated to a suitable temperature to reduce its yield pointbut not sufficiently to destroy the heat treatment. The plate is thenplaced in a female die 53 and a male die It is lowered toward the femaledie 83. In this operation the plate is formed to have a rounded shapeconforming to the arch of a foot; and, at the same time, the peripheraledge i2 is compressed or coined to produce a tapered or feathered edge.Thus, in a single operation the plate is both rounded and given atapered edge. In addition, the combined coining process and formingprocess results in sufficient work-hardening of the edge of the plate tomake it firm and prevent the plate backing away slowly under the weightof the foot.

The metal plate 3 is attached to the shoe by means of the prongs Ill andII. The prongs extend transversely across the width of the insoletraversing the base of the inseam lip through slits cut for thispurpose. The free ends of the prongs are fixed to the insole by rivets lor other means of fastening. I

The slitting of the lip for insertion of the prongs causes noappreciable weakening of the lip, particularly when the fore and theshank portion of the insole are of laminated construction in which case,as shown in the illustrations, the prongs lie or are embedded betweenthe plies and operation requiring no modication of the conven- Theprongs it 1 tional construction of the insole. and i 5 cross the insoleat points where none of the operations of assembling the shoe takeplace. The front prong ill crosses the insole in the forward area of theshank portion while the other prong l l crosses the central area of theshank portion of the shoe and is well forward of the area in which theheel is attached to the shoe. Thus both prongs are conveniently locatedwhere they do not interfere with the assembly of the shoe.

As a result of the use of the arch support of this invention a singleline of shoes can be made with or without the orthopedic feature byinserting or omitting the wing reinforcing plate. When the plate isomitted the wing is limp and is functionless merely adding a liningsection to the upper, adjacent to it.

Having described my invention, I claim:

In a shoe, an insole having a wing extending from the inner side of theshank portion thereof and substantially coextensive in length with saidshank portion to provide support for the arch of the foot, said Winghaving a rounded peripheral edge and an integral aircraft-type alloymetal plate underlying and supporting the wing, said plate comprising abody portion substantially coextensive in area with the wing and a pairof attaching prongs extending therefrom in a direction transverse of theinsole, said prongs passing through the inseam lips of the insole at theunder side thereof and having their free ends secured to the insole atpoints adjacent to the edge opposite to the edge on which the plate ispositioned, one of said prongs extending from the plate at the extremeforward end thereof and the other of said prongs extending from a pointsubstantially forward of the rear end of the plate thereby leavingunobstructed the entire heel area of the insole and a portion of theshank area directly forward of said heel area, the outer edge of thebody portion of the plate having a work hardened edge to compensate forthe loss of rigidity resulting from the forward positioning of therearward prong.

GORDON B. CARSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 118,660 Whidden Aug. 29, 1871996,989 Lengemann July 4, 1911 2,147,913 Moore Feb. 21, 1939 FOREIGNPATENTS Number Country Date 495,855 Germany Apr. 11, 1930

